Ocean-driven thinning enhances iceberg calving and retreat of Antarctic ice shelves

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Liu, Yan, Moore, John C., Cheng, Xiao, Gladstone, Rupert M., Bassis, Jeremy N., Liu, Hongxing, Wen, Jiahong, Hui, Fengming
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2015
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelves; Iceberg*
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371949; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25733856; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1415137112

The floating parts of the Antarctic ice sheet (“ice shelves”) help to hold back the flow of the grounded parts, determining the contribution to global sea level rise. Using satellite images, we measured, for the first time, all icebergs larger than 1 km2 calving from the entire Antarctic coastline, and the state of health of all the ice shelves. Some large ice shelves are growing while many smaller ice shelves are shrinking. We find high rates of iceberg calving from Antarctic ice shelves that are undergoing basal melt-induced thinning, which suggests the fate of ice shelves may be more sensitive to ocean forcing than previously thought.